Remembering Ninoy; meeting Sergey Bubka

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the execution of Sen Benigno (Ninoy) Aquino Jr. at the then Manila International Airport. It was a little past 1 p.m., Sunday when Ninoy’s China Air Lines flight from Taipei touched down in Manila. He had returned “against all odds.”

A few minutes after Ninoy’s plane landed, military personnel boarded the plane, sought out Ninoy and guided him through the side exit of the passenger tube attached to the plane. One escort noticeably checked Ninoy’s back to determine if the senator was wearing a bullet proof vest. Seconds after Ninoy and his escorts went down the side staircase, a voice gave instructions in a Visayan dialect, “Pusila, Pusila” (“Shoot him, shoot him”).

The command was followed by several gunshots and within another few seconds, Ninoy lay sprawled in the tarmac, his immaculate all white outfit drenched in his own blood. After more gunshots, another body lay on the ground right beside the blue Aviation Security Command (AVSECOM) van. Two men in military uniforms (one of them wearing in reverse a baseball cap), threw Ninoy‘s body into the van like a sack of potatoes. If Ninoy were still alive by some miracle after being shot in the head, the deliberate mishandling of his body ensured that he would have no chance of surviving to tell his story.

Beside Ninoy’s body was that of a police character who authorities claim (after a few hours of “investigation”) was a hit man hired by communists to assassinate Ninoy and embarrass Ferdinand Marcos. Earlier, Marcos had tried, through various emissaries (including his wife Imelda), to dissuade Ninoy from coming back to the Philippines. The dictatorship already had enough economic problems of its own making (precipitated by profligate spending and massive corruption) and had its hands full with the communist insurgency and a separatist movement.

Instead of weakening the opposition and eliminating Ninoy from the political equation, Marcos’s problems had just begun and Ninoy was to achieve in his death what he could not do in his lifetime: get rid of Marcos.

The execution was to spark a wave of massive protests that culminated in the EDSA People Power Revolution from Feb. 22 to 25, 1986. Marcos fled to Guam and eventually Hawaii and Ninoy’s widow, Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino assumed the Presidency after millions of Filipinos took to the streets refusing to accept the results of the rigged snap Presidential elections.

Three Presidents (Fidel V. Ramos, Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) and 24 years later, Ninoy’s and Pres. Cory’s only son, Benigno III (Noynoy) became the country’s 15th President after the death of Pres. Cory on Aug. 1, 2009 sparked a clamor for moral renewal. Noynoy’s victory was EDSA I all over again, a fact that was missed by a number of supposedly grizzled political analysts.

This bit of Philippine history was not lost on a number of people halfway around the globe in Moscow when we attended the 45th IAAF congress and 14th world athletics championships. A former consul of the Japanese embassy who was posted in Manila during the Marcos days recalled that fascinating period of Philippine history. The former consul is now one of the top officials of the IAAF and expressed the wish that peace would someday reign in Philippine athletics since there was so much potential in a country of 100 million.

Sergey Bubka, the current record holder for men’s pole vaulting and the youngest candidate for president of the International Olympic Committee (succeeding Frenchman Jacques Rogge), proudly says he is from Ukraine, one of the 15 republics that used to make up the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The 50-year-old Ukrainian won six consecutive world championships, one Olympic gold medal (1988, Seoul) and broke the men’s pole vault record 35 times. He was the first to clear 6.0 meters.

In our short conversation with Bubka during the Congress, he made a special effort to immediately correct us when we referred to him as “being from Russia.”

One can understand why Bubka had to rectify the remark. The Ukrainians had always yearned for independence whether from the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany. On Aug. 24, 1991, the Ukrainians adopted the Act of Independence declaring Ukraine as an independent state. The country will therefore be celebrating its 22nd year of independence a few days from now or three days after the 30th anniversary of Ninoy’s execution.

While emphatically stating he is Ukrainian and not Russian, Bubka will depend on his ties with Russia and the 13 other former Soviet republics in his campaign for the IOC presidency. The affable Bubka was actually a sprinter specializing in the 100 meters and the long jump, his speed proving to be one of his assets for his pole vaulting prowess. We wish him well in his candidacy: it’s a joy seeing world-caliber athletes aiming for top international sports positions with a definite platform to offer.